Netbooks – Toys for 36 Hours, Says Michael Dell

The chief executive officer and founder of Dell, the world’s third largest supplier of personal computers, said that although netbooks appear to be pretty popular among end-users, many people eventually get disappointed with small screens, inconvenient keyboards and other peculiarities of those ultra low-cost personal computers (ULCPCs).

“If you take a user who has used to a 14” or 15” notebook and you say ‘Here's a 10” netbook’, they are going to say ‘Hey, this is so fantastic. It’s so cute. It’s so light. I love it’. But about 36 hours later, they are saying ‘The screen is going to have to go. Give me my 15” screen back,” said Michael Dell at Churchill Club, reports The Register web-site.

The netbooks are supposed to be used only for very basic tasks, like email usage, Web browsing, communication and so on. Besides, the netbooks are supposed to be very inexpensive, which is why they are equipped with cheap keyboards, small screens, low-cost storage solutions and so on. However, many end-users expect from netbooks more than they are capable of.

“We see a fair amount of customers not really being that satisfied with the smaller screen and the lower performance – unless it is like a secondary machine or it is a very first machine and the expectations are low. But as a replacement machine for an experienced user, it's not what we'd recommend. It's not a good experience, and we don't see users very happy with those,” added Mr. Dell.

Although Mr. Dell clearly said that consumers are disappointed with low-end keyboards and screens, Nvidia Corp. has issued a statement which implies that netbooks featuring Nvidia GeForce 9400M/Ion core-logic with Nvidia’s graphics core are considerably better than those powered by an Intel chips with Intel Graphics and Media Accelerator.

“When you ship with Intel Graphics, you get what you pay for...,” a statement by Nvidia reads.

X-bit labs on Thursday initiated a new poll on the front-page asking its readers to express their opinion regarding ultra low-cost personal computers, e.g. netbooks and nettops. Tell us, have you already acquired an ULCPC, or only planning to get one, or maybe you think that netbooks and nettops do not make any sense?